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The New Adventures of Superman – Bugs – tape 2204

This tape opens with the end of an episode of Big Break, because Jim Davidson was a perfect choice to front Saturday Night entertainment shows.

There’s just the titles here, but under them you can see Davidson just wander offstage as soon as the lights go down, leaving the other people standing by the snooker table. It kind of suggests that he’s not there to banter with the contestants once the show’s over. I admit that I might be reading negative behaviour into very little evidence based on my predisposition to dislike him. But I bet I’m not.

There’s a trailer for That’s Showbusiness. Graham Norton was beginning his ascent to the dizzying heights of today.

There’s also a trailer for Fully Booked.

Then we have The New Adventures of Superman and an episode called The Dad Who Came In From The Cold. They’re going heavily for a James Bond vibe. A spy is blown up outside Lois’ flat, and he gives her and Superman his very damaged computer. A woman in a black jumpsuit called Sweet Tart turns up to ask if they were given anything. She works for the National Intelligence Agency.

The NIA are looking for the hard drive in the computer, and another agent comes calling. He’s Jack Olsen, estranged father of Jimmy Olsen. He even does that ‘take off the jumpsuit to reveal a dinner jacket’ scene from Goldfinger (and homaged in True Lies).

The plot hinges around the damaged laptop hard drive, so it’s nice to see them using a genuine hard drive and connector in the final scenes rather than some unlikely prop.

There’s a trailer for The Liver Birds – a sequel series by the looks of it.

Also, a trailer for Ronnie Corbett’s Small Talk.

Then, there’s the start of Confessions presented by the young Simon Mayo. In another very dashing frock coat. I like to think he was subliminally auditioning for the role of Doctor Who.

After a few minutes of this (and I confess to quite enjoying the small segment here) recording switches to the end of the National Lottery, with guest Gloria Estefan.

There’s a trailer for the Eurovision Song Contest, and, because I was just mentioning Doctor Who earlier, a trailer for the Paul McGann Doctor Who TV movie.

Then, another episode of Bugs, entitled Gold Rush. The story is credited to Bruno Heller and Alison Leathart. Heller is also the creator of The Mentalist and this is one of his earliest writing credits.

Some high-tech thieves (are there any other kind in Bugs?) release an organic virus that attacks a financial trading company’s mainframe. Luckily, they could save all the data by pulling out the battery-backed RAM boards. Because that’s how computers work.

After this, recording switches to a couple of weeks later (skipping a week for the Eurovision Song Contest). There’s the end of an episode of Full Swing, the geriatric golfing programme hosted by Tarby.

There’s a look ahead to Sunday’s programmes.

And another trailer for the eagerly awaited Paul McGann TV movie.

Then, The New Adventures of Superman and I Now Pronounce You… It’s Clark and Lois’s wedding but Lois is having premonitions that things will go badly.

There’s no room at the hotel they’ve booked for their guests because the president is in town, played by Fred Willard.

Tony Curtis plays the villain, Dr Mamba, who has a clone of the president.

After a typically low energy plot, they finally get to the wedding. And despite all the difficulties, it actually happens, and they’re married.

Or are they? as the programme ends with the implication that Lois is actually a clone, and that Lex Luthor has escaped from prison.

3 comments

Oh God The Liver Birds sequel was such a mess. They even retconned it so that Michael Angelis’ character could return, playing the brother of Polly James, despite him originally being the brother of Elizabeth Estensen, James’ successor in the original series.